Trump, Japan's Abe seek consensus on North Korea amid strains

The Japanese prime minister will plead with Mr Trump at a summit in Florida not to abandon Japan in his haste to strike a deal with North Korea.

Abe will attempt to use the personal rapport he has established with the United States president over the past 18 months to remind Trump that any deal over North Korea's nuclear program must take into account Tokyo's concerns about the missile threat from Pyongyang. Japan's Prime Minister wants reassurance that the USA won't let Kim Jong Un wriggle out of sanctions with more empty promises of denuclearization.

Japanese economic circles paid great attention to Chinese foreign minister's visit to Japan and the high-level economic dialogue between China and Japan which was held after an eight-year hiatus, and welcomed the important messages sent by the two sides on safeguarding global free trade system, they said.

Japan wants Trump to avoid a deal in which Pyongyang gives up ballistic missiles that can hit the US mainland but keeps shorter-range missiles that threaten Japan.

Yu Uchiyama, a political science professor at the University of Tokyo, said Abe will try to make sure the two leaders are on the same page on North Korea. Trump pulled the US out of TPP shortly after his inauguration in early 2017.

Following Washington's withdrawal, the remaining 11 members, led by Japan, succeeded in signing a revised version in March.

Koizumi, who was Prime Minister from 2001-06, told Aera magazine published on Monday that Abe has found himself in a "dangerous" situation over the scandals.

Motegi will also join the Abe-Trump talks in Florida, according to the Japanese government.

Japan, which was not exempted fromWashington's recently invoked steel and aluminium tariffs, is resisting Trump's push for a bilateral free trade agreement which he believes will reduce the US's trade deficit with Japan.

The two leaders are also likely to exchange views on the situation in the Indo-Pacific region, including China's increasing maritime assertiveness in the South China Sea, as well as recent US -led airstrikes on Syria, among other topics.